Saturday, March 10, 2012

The bird, bird, bird. The bird is the word.

What now seems like ages ago, a hummingbird woke me up one morning. Since that tiny flutter of duo chromatic color entered my world, I have, albeit slowly, learned to pay even closer attention to every species of animal that makes itself known to me. As I touched on in my previous post, spirit animals have seemed to make quite the splash in society in recent times. I once had an Ethnic studies teacher in college who drilled into our heads the importance of being able to identify the world around you. It was a literature course and the purpose of his statement was to aid in our writing. Rather than writing simply about "the way the wind whistled through the tree tops", the more one knows about their environment, the more descriptive their writing will be and thus the picture painted, more colorful: "the way the wind whistled through the leaves of the ancient Oak trees." More information will always equate to a more definite and better understood shape and a more fleshed out story.

In this day and age, it's likely there aren't many people who haven't heard of "The Secret" or "The Law of Attraction". Like attracts like and all that jazz. Well, if we are to agree with this universal law (I do), then it would only make sense that that which surrounds us is "like" us, at least at that time. Being alive, we all grow, and thus we all change. Rarely does one live a static existence, for we would not be alive if we did. As we change, our surroundings must change as well. I find, that one of thee most helpful ways to gauge our own energy is through animals. Regardless of whether you live in a city, suburbia or the country, nature is always effervescent. Even in and around New York, a sprawling metropolis with people seemingly stacked on top of one another in this concrete jungle, nature exists. I've come across hawks, falcons, ravens, ladybugs, squirrels, blue jays, owls, groundhogs, rabbits, bats, dragonflies, woodpeckers, caterpillars, butterflies, snakes, spiders, fireflies, chipmunks and countless other birds I haven't identified.

Groundhog, ladybug and dragonfly love

Some make themselves KNOWN. I went to Ohio for Thanksgiving and quite literally was followed by ravens the entire time. These birds (they're a type of crow) are loud and if you don't see them, they make sure you hear them. More recently, I was woken up every single day for 2 weeks by the voice of ravens in the tree outside my window. Where ravens are loud and you'd have to be deaf not to notice them, Hawks seem to be majestically silent as they ride the winds, wings spread, enjoying their flight.

Ravens

While some animals can and will present themselves to you in the flesh, if you live in the US, it's unlikely that you will come face to face with say, a tiger or an octopus (unless at a zoo or aquarium). Regardless, if you possess that energy, they will show themselves to you whether through images, conversations etc. What made me revive and dive deeper into the spirit animal realm was what I suppose can only be described as what some might call a "vision". I've tried to meditate since it was suggested to me when I was in the hospital 8 years ago. It never seemed to work and always frustrated me. I'm still not entirely fantastic at it and either forget or am too tired to "practice" on a regular basis. However, at some point last year I was wide awake in my bedroom, frustrated by some condition of my life at the time and I flopped on my bed and closed my eyes. The second my eyelids shut I saw a white barn owl who flapped her wings once and then raised them. As they raised, the owl turned into the moon. I should mention that I was 100% sober and my first thought was "OMG! How cool! WTF was that? Did I finally do this meditation thing right? Without even trying?" Since my eyes were closed, and though I wasn't sleeping, my next inclination was to google "owl meaning dream dictionary" One way or another, I ended up following some rabbit hole that led me to spirit animals. The rest is history.

A stingray and a frog came to play with me in Miami this summer

Since that point, if an animal makes themselves known in my world, whether in the flesh, in a dream/vision or through synchronicity (my personal rule is randomly seeing/hearing about a species 3 times within say a week) I study them. I look at the color, think about how they move, what they're known for, how they eat, how they protect themselves, what their skills are etc and I also google *insert species here* spirit animal. I will say that every single animal that has made itself known, perfectly reflected what I needed to see/learn/be during that time period. So you might be curious to explore why you bought that Fox spirit hood instead of the Cheetah one or why a spider scared the hell out of you and made you squeal like a little girl. There's a lot more to this world, if only we would stop texting and tweeting for a minute to pay attention to life. What animals have you been ignoring?

Linkage: As we all know, the internet is filled with a plethora of websites and tons of information. The most useful site I have found relating to spirit animal guides if you wish to explore on your own, is Shamanic Journey Not to say there aren't other good ones, but this is my personal favorite.